Waiting for a miracle at the 2024 Olympiad
Grandmaster Le Quang Liem is the 10th highest Elo player among the players participating in the 2024 World Chess Olympiad, competing in Hungary. Le Quang Liem's Elo is 2741. Vietnamese chess has never had such a positive result as now at the 2024 Olympiad because each member of the team (including Le Quang Liem, Le Tuan Minh, Tran Tuan Minh, Bang Gia Huy, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son) played well. Each person has their own determination for the tournament, but Le Quang Liem certainly wants the highest result to mark his career.
“I am very happy and proud of my teammates. We played great and won. The Vietnamese men's chess team did not have high hopes and was not under any pressure to achieve results because we were only the 21st seed when entering the tournament. The best result of the Vietnamese men's chess team at the Olympiad was only seventh place.
Never before has the Vietnamese men's chess team had a real chance to compete for a medal because the Olympiad is an arena that gathers the strongest teams in the world. Therefore, our whole team competes in the 2024 Olympiad with enjoyment and a relaxed spirit, and that could be an advantage for us," Le Quang Liem told the media of the 2024 Olympiad organizing committee after the Vietnamese chess team defeated China in the sixth match of the tournament.
As Quang Liem expressed, when competing, each chess game of each player is a decisive game. However, if we keep the most comfortable, we will not have any difficulty in perfecting our results. If the Vietnamese Men's Chess Team successfully wins the 2024 Olympiad medal, Le Quang Liem will certainly have a historic result for himself and his teammates. In 2018, the Vietnamese Men's Chess Team won the seventh place in the World Chess Olympiad at that time including: Le Quang Liem, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Tran Tuan Minh, Nguyen Anh Khoi, Dao Thien Hai. Now, Le Quang Liem is still a witness to history (with Truong Son, Tuan Minh) and continues to participate in the World Chess Olympiad 2024.
Regret with the opportunity at ASIAD
Le Quang Liem once shared that he had some regrets in his competition. Perhaps, one of Le Quang Liem's biggest regrets was not winning a medal with the Vietnamese Chess Team at the 19th ASIAD last year in Hangzhou (China). On the playing board at that time, Quang Liem was one of the players expected to achieve the best results. Unfortunately, we were not successful and did not win a medal. The coaching staff of the Vietnamese Chess Team later revealed that, during the time in Hangzhou (China) when the chess event ended, Quang Liem himself said that he did not compete with the best performance, so he and his teammates did not achieve the expected results. That is the mettle of a grandmaster, ready to take responsibility for himself.
In 2010 at the ASIAD also held in Guangzhou (China), Le Quang Liem had the opportunity to touch the Gold Medal in the rapid chess event. However, Liem still missed the opportunity and only won the Silver Medal. In terms of medal achievements for the Vietnamese Chess Team in tournaments at the Congress level, the Silver Medal at the 2010 ASIAD is the highest achievement that Le Quang Liem has achieved.
The host of the 2026 Asian Games, Japan, will not include chess in the competition program. Thus, Le Quang Liem will have to wait a lot longer to have the opportunity to return to this arena.
“We always appreciate Le Quang Liem for being very focused on the Vietnam Chess Team every time he participates in a competition. He is a very professional player, has courage and especially always achieves high results when wearing the national team jersey”, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Chess Federation - Mr. Nguyen Minh Thang once expressed his opinion.
The man of calm
Le Quang Liem is currently living and working in the US. However, this grandmaster is still a player of Ho Chi Minh City Sports. In terms of professional career, Le Quang Liem is the one who has achieved the best position and achievements in the international arena for Vietnamese chess. Very rarely, Le Quang Liem appears in the media and in tournaments at all levels, each move of this player shows the calmness of his personality.
In 2005, Le Quang Liem won his first international championship, the Gold Medal at the World Youth Championship for the U14 age group. In 2006, Liem first participated in the World Chess Olympiad and that was also the year that Le Quang Liem was awarded the title of international grandmaster. After many years of competing in his career, Le Quang Liem has won all the titles at all levels in the events he participated in. The turning point of his career was when Le Quang Liem participated in the Webster University (USA) chess tournament and then received a full scholarship from this University to study in the US in 2013. Now, Le Quang Liem is the head coach of the Webster University chess team and has many jobs and living in the US.
Le Quang Liem won against Chinese grandmaster Ding Liren in the sixth game of the 2024 World Chess Olympiad. At that time, Liem was still cautious to say that he and his teammates' efforts and the victory were very meaningful results for him because the opponent was the world champion of standard chess.
With chess, Le Quang Liem considers it an indispensable passion. During his time studying in the US, Quang Liem once shared that he had to devote all his attention to studying from Monday to Friday. In a week, he only had enough time on Saturday and Sunday to practice chess. Perhaps, there are few cases in Vietnamese sports in general and chess in particular like Le Quang Liem who has comprehensively studied and achieved results in sports competitions.
Coach Bui Vinh of the Vietnam Chess Team once analyzed that to be successful in any chess content, players must undergo hard training. Le Quang Liem is also such a person! Le Quang Liem has never talked about his chess training time, but people in the profession understand that this grandmaster always maintains the highest level of discipline for himself.
“Liem is a very disciplined person, from training to chess competitions. When the Vietnamese Chess Team practices, Liem always takes time to connect online to practice with his teammates. This is something we always appreciate and only people with a high sense of national responsibility will not hesitate to do such things,” Mr. Bui Vinh once shared.
Now, Le Quang Liem has risen to 14th place in the world. According to forecasts, after the 2024 World Chess Olympiad, Le Quang Liem will continue to rise in rank and almost certainly the 12th place in the world belongs to this player. In history, no one from Vietnam has entered the Top 15 in the world in chess. Liem has done it. Each chess game is a game of his career and each checkmate has brought decisive victory to Le Quang Liem.
